Blizzard is nerfing my favorite new hero, and I’m only a little salty. Overwatch 2 (opens in new tab) Season 2 begins on December 6, and with it comes the new Tank hero Ramattra, a new payload map, and a bunch of balancing changes. Today’s dev update (opens in new tab) doesn’t go into detail about most of the planned balance changes, but here’s what we know for sure: Sojourn is getting a big nerf, and Doomfist is getting a big buff.
“Both metrics and player feedback have shown Sojourn dominating the highest tiers of Competitive ranks while remaining a challenge for players without the same mechanical skills,” reads the post. It’s true: take a peek at Overwatch 2’s public ranked leaderboards and you’ll notice a sea of Sojourn mains. Her ability to one-shot kill most heroes in the game with a single, unpredictable headshot has proven too deadly in the right hands.
“To address the high-skill feedback, we’ll be focusing on the lethality of her Rail Gun at distance for Season 2, encouraging players to make use of Sojourn’s high mobility to close the distance for the more devastating right-clicks.”
To translate: “focus on the lethality of her Rail Gun at distance” almost definitely means that she’s going to deal less damage from far away. Depending on how harsh the new damage dropoff will be, the days of one-shotting a Cassidy from full health may be over. This change makes a lot of sense for Overwatch 2’s most competitive settings, but over in the land of Quick Play with average-skill players, Sojourn’s dominance isn’t so distinct. She’s been a reasonably popular pick in my matches, but most players aren’t pulling off constant insta-kill headshots.
Still, Sojourn does have a case of ‘being good at everything’ at the moment, and slightly weakening her sniper shot should make her playstyle more distinct from Overwatch’s resident headshot queen: Widowmaker.
The other hero under the microscope is Doomfist, who’s had trouble fitting into his new Tank role. At high level play, Doomfist’s potential to disrupt enemy frontlines and deal group damage is big, but his mobile moveset is hard to grasp and you’re usually better off with a simpler pick. To address this, the December 6 update will see “significant changes that better support his role as the team’s front line, while still maintaining the playstyle core to his Hero identity.”
Blizzard name-dropped a few other heroes getting balance tweaks next week:
- Ana
- Bastion
- Junker Queen
- Kiriko
- Mercy
- Symmetra
We don’t know who’s getting the nerfs/buffs of this group, but allow me to make some educated guesses. It’d make a lot of sense to me for Mercy, Junker Queen, and Symmetra to get some sort of buff. Mercy’s especially could use a boost in a meta that increasingly favors supports that can score kills as often as they’re healing. Kiriko and Ana are probably getting nerfed on account of having the greatest abilities in the game (Protection Suzu and Biotic Grenade) and high healing potential. Bastion is a toss-up. I think he’s fun and reasonably strong, but I also suspect he’s unpopular at higher ranks.
Overwatch 2 Season 2 begins on December 6 with a new 80-tier battle pass. The fancy new mythic skin this season is Zeus Junker Queen, a combination of two things that I didn’t expect to look so cool. Here’s hoping JQ gets the buff that finally makes her fun to play. Once again, new hero Ramattra will be unlockable at Tier 55, but unlike with Season 1, Overwatch 1 owners will not get automatic access to him. For that, you’ll need to buy the $10 premium battle pass.
www.pcgamer.com
